The first of these bears the name CELSINVS . F .; the second, MICCIO; the third, AISTIVI.M; and the fourth is the one referring to Aretium.” [Illustration: Figs. 270 and 271.] [Illustration: Fig. 272.] [Illustration: Fig. 273.] [Illustration: Fig. 274.] [Illustration: Fig. 275.] [Illustration: Fig. 276.] Similar dies for stamping the ornaments and figures have also been found in France. In the latter, each die contained a single figure, or, at all events, a single group, and this explains why the same figures are so frequently found on the pottery in different combinations. One of these dies contains a single festoon and tassel of the well-known festoon ornament, so common on this pottery. [Illustration: Fig. 277.] The ornamental borders which are most commonly met with on Samian ware are elegant festoon-and-tassel borders, and the egg-and-tongue ornament, both of which, as well as a border consisting of a range of figures representing the Medicean Venus, are shown on the accompanying engraving (fig. 277) of a fine bowl found in London. Wavy lines and lines of circles are also common, and we frequently meet with scroll-work of very elegant design, commonly formed of leaves, flowers, and fruit. Examples, selected from a numerous variety, are given on engravings (figs. 278 to 282). These scrolls are generally used to form a border round the upper part of the bowl, as shown on figs. 280 and 281. The foliage most in favour for these scrolls was that of the vine, and the ivy (fig. 282), and also that of the strawberry; the former of which especially shows that this pottery was, as Pliny says of the Samian ware, particularly intended for the service of the table. The ivy-leaf, indeed, is almost the only ornament of the plainer description of this red ware. Sometimes the leaves of the vine are gracefully intermingled with the clusters of the fruit, and with little birds which are feeding upon the latter, as in the fragment represented in our cut (fig. 283). [Illustration: Fig. 278.] [Illustration: Fig. 279.] [Illustration: Fig. 280.] [Illustration: Fig. 281.] [Illustration: Fig. 282.] [Illustration: Fig. 283.] Animals of all kinds are found in abundance among the ornaments of the Samian ware. Among these the boar was a great favourite. For instance, a cup will be divided into compartments, in which figure alternately two boars, and a man confronting them with a spear. In a similar compartment under arches, in another, we have two heads of lions above, and below, a rabbit and a dog. Another, again, is ornamented with fishes, separated by squares filled with a singular ornament, which is perhaps intended to represent water. Sometimes the whole outside of a bowl is covered with birds, beasts, and fishes mixed together in the utmost confusion. [Illustration: Fig. 284.] [Illustration: Fig. 285.]